New York, N.Y (October 1, 2013) – New York Institute of Technology has organized TEDxNYIT, a day-long event on October 10 that will focus on resiliency, its relevance, and its meaning for people, cities, cultures, and our global community.

TEDxNYIT at NYIT Auditiorium on Broadway, includes thirteen speakers, three performing artists, and previously videotaped TED talks meant to spark “ideas worth spreading” on the leadership needed to reinvent communities.

Frank Mruk, associate dean of NYIT School of Architecture and Design and the event’s organizer, said TEDxNYIT grew out of a student-led movement to consider major community regeneration following Hurricane Sandy’s destruction of coastal areas in the New York metropolitan area. Operation Resilient Long Island, the NYIT student group, launched a global competition to collect ideas that would help areas become more resilient as they rebuilt.

“Each step was a higher level iteration than the one previous, engaging more and more people,” said Mruk. “Now it’s way beyond an architectural or urban planning question of resilience.”

Mruk contacted TED, a nonprofit devoted to spreading worthwhile ideas. TED conferences focus on Technology, Entertainment and Design, with speakers who “give the talk of their lives” in 18 minutes or less. Talks are then spread and shared globally on the group’s website. Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

“The concept of resiliency itself – is it sustainable or is it a fad – these are relevant questions just one year after Hurricane Sandy,” Mruk said. “We’ve had major disruptions – 9/11, the financial crisis, climate change, revolution – it’s time to think about resiliency from a higher level.”

Among the speakers are Claes Frossen of Sweden, who participated in the movement of a city affected by mining operations, Margaret Newman from the NYC Dept. of Transportation, Canada’s Ron Dembo, Ph.D., a risk management and climate change expert, and Fernando Romero of FR-EE, an architecture practice based in Mexico City and New York.

NYIT alumni Alex Alaimo will focus his talk on Operation Resilient Long Island and the winners of the 3C Comprehensive Coastal Communities competition, which garnered more than 300 registrations from 20 countries.

Performers at TEDxNYIT include Carter Brey, principal cellist of the NY Philharmonic, Harpist Erin Hill, and indie band City of the Sun.

“NYIT is a global university and, in the words of our president Dr. Edward Guiliano, an ‘idea incubator,’” said Mruk, “so the TEDxNYIT format is a great platform that allows us to dive deeper into ideas , while gaining a broad perspective on the thoughts of some of the world’s great visionaries and doers.”

About TEDx

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. NYIT’s event is called TEDxNYIT, where x=independently organized TED event. At TEDxNYIT, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California almost 30 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes on a diverse mix of topics. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The TED2014 Conference will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, along with the TEDActive simulcast in neighboring Whistler. TEDGlobal 2014 will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; and TEDBooks, short e-books on powerful ideas. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world get help translating their wishes into action; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) offers 90 degree programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees, in more than 50 fields of study, including architecture and design; arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing sciences; health professions; management; and osteopathic medicine. A non-profit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 13,000 students attending campuses on Long Island and Manhattan, online, and at its global campuses. NYIT sponsors 11 NCAA Division II programs and one Division I team.

Led by President Edward Guiliano, NYIT is guided by its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, offer access to opportunity to all qualified students, and support applications-oriented research that benefits the larger world. To date, 95,000 graduates have received degrees from NYIT. For more information, visit New York Institute of Technology at nyit.edu.